Former Arsenal star Jorginho excelled in his second appearance for his new club, Flamengo, dismantling Chelsea at the Club World Cup in Philadelphia.
Flamengo eased to a 3-1 victory against Chelsea, with goals from Bruno Henrique, Danilo and Gerson cancelling out Pedro Neto’s early strike.
Esperance de Tunis beat LAFC in the other fixture in this group, meaning Chelsea are now at risk of not qualifying for the knockout stages when they take on the Tunisian side next week.
Meanwhile, Flamengo have become the first team to book their place in the tournament’s second round and will win Group D if they avoid a heavy defeat against LAFC.
Brazil’s media were enthralled by Jorginho’s debut in the opening match against Esperance earlier this week, and the Italian followed that up with another impressive showing on Friday night.
Jorginho impresses against his former club Chelsea
Deployed in a double pivot alongside Chilean Erick Pulgar, Jorginho thrived at the base of midfield for the Brazilian giants in Pennsylvania.
Outsmarting his counterparts Reece James and Moises Caicedo in the middle of the park, the ex-Arsenal man was typically efficient in possession, while helping to get Flamengo up the pitch with his exceptional range of passing.
Having 68 touches, the 33-year-old rolled back the years by producing a metronomic display, completing 88% of his passes and playing 10 passes into the final third.
He also thwarted Enzo Fernandez, who was operating in a more advanced role, on numerous occasions, stopping the Argentine’s typically dangerous late bursts into the box.
The Italy international finished the game having made eight recoveries and having won six of his seven ground duels; it was as defensively secure a display as you’ll ever see from the deep-lying playmaker.
Despite spending four-and-a-half years at Stamford Bridge, Jorginho didn’t hold back in his celebrations at full-time and after each Flamengo goal, something that will endear him to the on-watching Arsenal fans.
Jorginho’s display shows he could have been Martin Zubimendi’s back-up
Jorginho left Arsenal at the end of the season when his contract expired.
The Gunners appear to be looking to enact something of a midfield rebuild, with Thomas Partey now also expected to leave North London.
Meanwhile, Martin Zubimendi is set to sign from Real Sociedad, but Mikel Arteta’s squad will still be left one man light in the middle of the park.
They’ll likely have to dip into the market and find a back-up for Zubimendi, which will eat into their resources that they’d ideally want to allocate to forward areas.
Instead, they could simply have kept hold of Jorginho for another year, who showed against Chelsea on Friday that he still has it within him to thrive against top quality opposition.
He’s never possessed immense physicality or mobility, with the question marks around him instead being about his ability to make defensive actions.
He proved to Arteta in the Club World Cup clash that he has this side of the game in his locker, and he certainly could’ve gone for another season in N5.
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